BOOK pleasure, as was his natural propensity. He had V. Taking of not long enjoyed his new conquest, before he was called to meet a more formidable antagonist than he had yet encountered. Sultán Sanjar was now the nominal head of the empire of the Seljúks; and, although the subordination of his nephew in the western part of it was merely nominal, yet he possessed in effect the greater part of the power of the family. When he placed Behrám on the throne of Ghazthe Seljuks. ni, he stipulated for a tribute which he affected to consider as still due from Alá u dín. The latter prince refused to acknowledge the claim, and Sanjar marched against him, defeated him, and made him prisoner. He however treated him with liberality, and admitted him to his familiar society. Alá u dín, who was naturally lively and agreeable, profited by the opportunity, and so won on Sanjar by his insinuating manners and his poetical and other accomplishments, that the Seljúk prince determined to restore him to liberty, and even to replace him on his throne. † Restora tion of Alá u dín. This generous resolution of Sanjar's was, no doubt, strengthened by his own situation, which * De Guignes, vol. ii. p. 252. + End of A. D. 1152, A. H. 547, or the beginning of the next year. De Guignes and D'Herbelot make the date A. D. 1149, A. H. 544; but it must have been after the taking of Ghazni, and before Sanjar's captivity, which fixes the date with precision. Some of the verses that had such an effect on Sanjar are preserved; but it must have been to their complimentary turn rather than their poetical merit that they owed their success. did not render it desirable for him to embarrass CHAP. himself with new conquests. A few years before this time Atziz, Sanjar's governor of Khárizm, had rebelled, and, dreading his sovereign's resentment, had called in the aid of the Khitans, a Tartar tribe, who, having been driven by the Chinese from the north of China, made their appearance in Transoxiana. These allies enabled Atziz to defeat the Sultan. In the course of the next two years the power of the Seljuks again prevailed, and Atziz was for a time constrained to acknowledge their supremacy. IV. But the invasion of the Khitans had more permanent effects than those; for their arrival displaced the portion of the tribe of Euz† which had remained in Transoxiana while the other portion was conquering in Syria and Asia Minor; and these exiles, being forced on the south, became in their turn invaders of the territories of the Seljúks. Sanjar opposed them with his usual vigour, at the head of an army of 100,000 men. In spite of all A. D. 1153, his efforts he was totally defeated ‡, fell into the hands of the enemy, and remained in captivity for This is the origin of the kings of Khárizim, so celebrated in the East, who overthrew the kingdom of Ghór, and were in their turn overthrown by Chengíz Khán. The Euz tribe are Túrks, who were long settled in Kipchák. They are, according to De Guignes, the ancestors of the Túrkmans (vol. i. part ii. pp. 510. 522., vol. ii. p. 190.). They are also called Uzes, Guz, Gozz, Gozi, and Gazi; but in Ferghana, where they are the ruling tribe, they are still called Euz (pronounced like the English verb use.) De Guignes, vol. ii. p. 256. A. H. 548. BOOK V. Fall of the A. D. 1156 А н. 551. three years, till within a few months of his death in A. D. 1156, A. H. 551. Before the release of Alá u dín, Sultán Khusru resolved to seize the opportunity of recovering Ghazni ; but acted with so little promptitude, that he heard of the captivity of Sanjar before he reached his destination, and immediately returned to Láhór. He however now found unexpected allies; for the Euzes, after defeating Sanjar, poured over all the open part of Alá u dín's territory, and took possession of Ghazni, which they retained for two years after that time they either evacuated or neglected it, and it fell for a time into the hands of Khusru.* His success, even for a time, was probably owing to the death of Alá u dín, who expired in A. D. 1156, A.H. 551, and was succeeded by his son, Seif u dín, after a short but eventful reign of four years. Seif u din Ghóri. Not long before the death of Alá u dín, he had placed his two nephews, Gheiás u dín and Shaháb u dín, in confinement. Whatever may have been the real motive of this proceeding, a natural one presents itself in the desire of securing the succession of his young and inexperienced son, to whom those active princes were likely to prove formida * Ferishta and De Guignes make the Euz retain Ghazni for fifteen years. IV. ble competitors. This consideration had no weight CHAP. with Seif u dín, whose first act was to release his cousins and restore them to their governments; a confidence which he never had reason to repent. His other qualities, both personal and mental, corresponded to this noble trait, and might have insured a happy reign, if among so many virtues he had not inherited the revengeful spirit of his race. One of his chiefs appearing before him decorated with jewels which had belonged to his wife, and of which she had been stripped after his father's defeat by Sanjar, he was so transported by passion at the sight that he immediately put the offender to death with his own hand. A'bul Abbás, the brother of the deceased, suppressed his feelings at the time; but seized an early opportunity, when Seif u dín was engaged with a body of the Euz, and thrust his lance through the Sultan's body in the midst of the fight. Other historians say that he went into open rebellion, and killed the king in a regular action; and there are dif ferent accounts of the transactions that followed that event. They terminated, however, in the death of A'bul Abbás, and the succession of Gheiás u dín, the elder of the late Sultan's cousins. Seif u dín had reigned little more than a year.* Gheiás u dín Ghóri. Immediately on his accession, Gheiás u dín a. D. 1157, * D'Herbelot. Ferishta. Abstract of Mussulman histories, in Dorn's "Afgháns." A. H. 552. V. BOOK associated his brother, Mohammed Shaháb u dín, in the government. He retained the sovereignty during his whole life, but seems to have left the conduct of military operations almost entirely to Shaháb u dín; on whom, for some years before Gheiás u dín's death, the active duties of the government seem in a great measure to have devolved. The harmony in which these brothers lived is not the only proof that they retained the family attachment which prevailed among their predecessors. Their uncle, (who ruled the dependent principality of Bámián, extending along the upper Oxus from the east of Balkh,) having attempted to seize the throne on the death of Seif u dín, was defeated in battle, and so surrounded that his destruction seemed inevitable; when his nephews threw themselves from their horses, ran to hold his stirrup, and treated him with such profound respect, that, although he at first suspected that they were mocking his misfortune, they at last succeeded in soothing his feelings, and restored him to his principality. It continued in his immediate family for three generations, until it fell, with the rest of the dominions of Ghór, on the conquest by the king of Khárizm.* All these transactions took place in less than five years from the fall of Ghazni, and the two brothers began now to turn to foreign conquest with the vigour of a new dynasty. *D'Herbelot. Dorn's Annotations. |